The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco

The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Received as an ARC from NetGalley.

Tea was no different than many girls growing up except for her voracious thirst for reading and learning. Her sisters were witches in ‘good standing’ and her brother, Fox, left to join the army when Tea was 10 years old. Fox was returned home in a small, pine box and it was at his wake that Tea found out who she really was. In bed sick, Lady Mykaela came to Tea to help her recover and move on to a world where she could learn and a world where she could be watched and controlled. Tea moved into the Valerian where all asha go to become properly trained. But she was different. She was a dark asha. She was a bone witch. She was dangerous.

The one word I could use for The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco is ‘intriguing’. It’s written basically in two parts. There is Tea, where she stands now, and a wanderer has asked to hear her story as to why she is in exile. The second part is Tea’s story that she is telling the traveler. The two stories are very complimentary and separate, but intertwine with perfect timing. I am not a fan of fantasy worlds that have been made up by the author. I find words that I can’t pronounce distracting from the story, but the further I read into The Bone Witch, then the less that mattered. After Tea raises her brother from the dead, she is taken to the Valerian to begin her journey to become asha. The asha are a group of highly received women who are trained in dancing and singing and are hired out of their respectable houses to parties to entertain nobility and the affluent. The description of the asha women are unmistakably Geisha-esque. Yes, there is a common theme of poor little girl who is destined for greatness, but there is an undertone of a sadness. Somehow that ‘greatness’ is what everyone is protecting her from because it is more of a self-sacrifice than anything and that is what puts a twist on the mundane. In the beginning of the book I was intrigued and by the end of the book I was fully vested.

There are a couple things that pop out for me with really good books. One are ‘eye-poppers’. Eye-poppers are books that you read so hard that you feel like your eyes are going to pop out of your head. Another are ‘ghosts’. Ghosts are when you are going about your daily lives and images of the book begins to linger into your head. It’s really strange, but the book is still very much around even when you are not reading it and will linger days after you are finished. The Bone Witch is a ‘ghost’ to me. The characters and their world is so richly developed and the story is so intriguing that it just lingers in your mind. I highly recommend The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco.

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